Investors Buying Retail Stocks As Macy's Strong Q3 Report Spurs Optimism; Heads Up For Kohl's, Wal-Mart Results On Thursday

Retail stocks are the top performing sector Wednesday morning as strong quarterly figures from Macy's M are given investors some hope heading into the holiday shopping season. The SPDR S&P Retail ETF XRT is up more than 0.6 percent at last check; the S&P 500 -- for some comparison -- is down about a tenth of a percent. Traders in the sector have bid up shares of Macy's by more than 9 percent this morning. The company reported better-than-expected third-quarter earnings of $0.47 per share on sales of $6.28 billion. Analysts on Macy's were looking for just $0.39 in profit per share on sales of around $6.2 billion. The department store retailer reaffirmed guidance with the quarterly report. The move higher in Macy's shares has added more than $1.5 billion to the company's market value. Elsewhere in the retail sector, shares of Target TGT are trading up 1.4 percent, shares of Nordstrom JWN are up 2.3 percent, and JC Penney JCP shares are up 1.6 percent. Dillard's DDS have surged more than 4 percent on the strong results; Bon-Ton BONT shares are up 6.3 percent at last check. Amid the sector strength, shares of apparel company Perry Ellis PERY have plunged more than 20 percent following a warning. The company is now looking for FY14 EPS in the range of $0.95 to $1.01, down very sharply from prior guidance of $1.50 to $1.60. Perry Ellis is now expecting a third quarter loss in the range of $0.15 to $0.17 per share, compared to the current Wall Street analyst consensus estimate of $0.13. Retail investors Wednesday are positioning themselves ahead of quarterly figures from Kohl's KSS and Wal-Mart WMT on Thursday morning. Tune in to the premium Benzinga's Pro feed and/or calendar suite to get all the real-time updates as these numbers are released.